Is anyone taking Clonidine tablets?
My shrink says that it is a blood pressure drug that is also used for adhd.
Does anyone know how this can stop adhd symptoms.
At last after four years hunting down a doctor to test me, I travelled four hours to the city n saw the only shrink in my state who specialises in adult behaviours. He took one look at me n diagnosed me. So everyone out there who are struggling to find answers DONT GIVE UP, keep pestering your doctors.
Because I have a drug abuse problem I cant be put on stimulants yet but have been put on Clonidine n dont understand why, does anyone know why a anti-hypertensive can help adhd?

zwyt

10-04-08, 12:39 AM

Yeah, I am taking Clonidine, I just started on it a couple of days ago though. I was taking generic Adderall 10 mg (blue tablets from Barr, some people claim this makes a difference), I was only recently diagnosed with adult ADD and the Adderall was basically a trial to see how I responded. At anyrate, the Adderall was having a tendency to kick my bp up pretty high (I already take other meds for high blood pressure). The doc switched me to Vyvanse 30 mg and added .1 mg of clonidine to be taken once or twice a day as necessary basically. I find the clonidine has a pretty hefty sedating effect to start but if you weather this it kind of fades into just a nice relaxed feeling, and the sedation isn't nearly as pronounced if I take it within an hour or two after taking the Vyvanse. Vyvanse seemed to raise my bp in a similar fashion to Adderall but not as much for the first couple of days but today I got through the whole day without taking any Clonidine because of BP spikes. It is kind of nice to take at night because it can kind of help you wind down from the residual effects that (in my experience) a stimulant can have even after the drug is supposed to be worn off, however some of this effect might be my fault because I tend to self medicate with caffiene when the stim begins to peter out. In my case I kind of like Clonidine, it does lower bp some, especially if you take it more than once per day, it got me down to 113/70 something the other night which is really good for me. That was after taking it two times in a day. They say that it is not good and can be really harmful (rebound hypertension and the like) if you have taken it for a while and try to go off of it suddenly. Monitor bp and monitor how it makes you feel, which you will pobably do anyway by default and you'll probably be ok, if it starts making you feel faint or dizzy, you probably want to get in touch with your doc, dose may need adjustment or a different med may be needed for you.

God Bless,
Charles

zwyt

10-04-08, 12:47 AM

I am sorry, I ignored part of your question, quite by accident in my previous post. Why it helps with ADD/ADHD... hmm well, I only know what I have read, and that is that it tends to help with the hyperactive and behavioral aspects more than it does the focus aspects, I am not exactly sure why this is, although I am sure that it has something to do with the calming effect that the med tends to have. However I have taken Klonopin for a while as well, since before I learned that I was dealing with ADD, and while the Klonipin would have a calming effect it tended to have somewhat of a not so positive effect on focus sometimes. Sometimes I would get anxious and take Klonopin and justend up feeling more frustrated as thoughts just tended to kind of slow down but concentration would still be difficult, so it must be more that just the sedating effect of Clonidine.

Charles

kwalk

10-04-08, 01:17 AM

clonidine isn't really a strong focusing med, more like better at reducing hyperactivity/impulsivity, if at all. Might as well see what happens though.

Strattera might be a good second consideration and actually vyvanse isn't considered to be addictive because it's inactive affect isn't "suppose" to make you feel high because of the way it's digested.

Also i've read with many people who have adhd and substance abuse problems, stimulants/ treatment make them less impulsive to want to abuse other substances. Hence, your substance abuse MIGHT be a way of dealing with your adhd temporarily. Stimulants might calm you down to a point of feeling level headed/normal/not having your head chopped off lol- so feeling that way is like, why wouldd i abuse substances, when i can live like this?